Today, a bold listing of books that've shaped us. The
University of Houston's College of Engineering presents
this series about the machines that make our civilization
run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

I've just given a luncheon talk at
a meeting of librarians. Now they present me with an odd
book -- a curious, audacious, and fascinating book. It's
actually an exhibit catalog.

The title, Books of the Century, refers to
the centennial of the New York Public Library, founded in
1895. In 1995, the Library exhibited 150 books which, in
their view, shaped and reflect the 20th century. Imagine
having to make such a list!

The task is daunting because it embodies a definition of
culture, and culture is a personal thing. If I were to
form such a list it would include The Good Soldier
Schweik and William James's Varieties of
Religious Experience. Both are on the Library's
list, but my list would also include the more obscure
Marks's Mechanical Engineer's Handbook and
Schlichting's Boundary Layer Theory. They
formed our culture just as surely, if less visibly.

Still, the New York Public Library does not disappoint
me. Along with Chekov, Auden, and Faulkner are Einstein
on Relativity, Madam Curie's Treatise on
Radioactivity, and the 1964 Surgeon General's
report on smoking. The list, culled from 1150 entrants,
recognizes that we are shaped by more than the great
works of literature.

That shaping has not been all sweetness and light.
Hitler's Mein Kampf is there. Churchill said
of it, "Here is the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, but pregnant with its message."
The Diary
of Anne Frank is displayed alongside Mein
Kampf.

I'm delighted to find so many of the books that've
defined me: Winnie the Pooh, The
Wizard of Oz, Chesterton's Father Brown Stories,
Fahrenheit 451, Catch-22, and
The Education of Henry Adams. I'm even more
delighted to find books I read to my children: The
Hobbit, Good Night Moon, and Dr.
Seuss.

The list acknowledges that popularity means something. If
we're to know who we are, we cannot turn our backs on
Tarzan, Dracula, Peyton Place, and Stephen King.

Another theme enters on little cat feet -- the struggle
to keep good books out where they can be read. It is
public librarians who have to deal with our fear of good
books. Here's Salinger's powerful coming-of-age story,
Catcher in the Rye. Salinger's keen ear for
dialog has had people on edge ever since. The book has
become a metaphor for the fight against censorship.

So the centerpiece of this luncheon is an Intellectual
Freedom Award, made to a woman who's fought censorship
for years with tact, determination, and good effect. She
gets a standing ovation.

One more book on the list: Superhighway -- Super
Hoax. It seems to be an attack on the
Interstate Highway System. So I leave you, and head off
to my university library. I must see what this one is all
about. I'll bet it holds another story, for me to tell --
another day.

I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where
we're interested in the way inventive minds work.

(Theme music)

Books of the Century, (E. Diefendorf, ed.).
New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.